A 19-by-36-inch “window” region was cut and polished to allow a peek inside the meteorite’s jewel parts. The item was supposed to bring USD 2,000,000 to Bonhams. Marvin Killgore holds an extra part considering the same amount as the main bulk.īonhams auctioned off the central mass in Manhattan in April 2008. The University of Arizona has a portion of type specimen weighing 31 kilos on deposit. Some olivine contains vermicular sulfide (troilite). The metal matrix is predominantly kamacite, with an average nickel concentration of 6.98 wt percent. Fo86.4 has a molar Fe/Mg ratio of 0.1367, a Fe/Mn ratio of 40.37, and a Ni content of 0.03 wt percent. The main bulk can see several sections of enormous olivine clusters with thin metal veins up to eleven centimeters in diameter. Olivines range in size from less than five millimeters to several centimeters, and their shapes range from spherical to angular. Fukang is undoubtedly among the few with giant and clear crystals. In contrast, a few contain dazzling clear olivines that are less fragmented. The crystals of most pallasites are black hazy, and extremely broken. The Fukang pallasite has massive, gem-quality olivine or peridot crystals in a nickel-iron matrix of about fifty/fifty metal and olivine crystals. Ian Franchi of Open University.įukang Pallasite Classification and Composition: Yulia Goreva, investigated the mass at the Southwest Meteorite Center, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, and were joined by Dr. Lauretta and a team of research scientists, including Dolores Hill, Marvin Killgore, Daniella DellaGiustina, and Dr. Dante Lauretta, a professor of Planetary Science and Cosmochemistry at the University of Arizona.ĭr. The meteorite was transported to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show in February 2005.
He cut roughly 20 kilos from the main bulk. It’s thought to be 4.5 billion years old.Ī Chinese merchant got a mass from Xinjiang Province, China, with a weight of 1,003 kilos in 2003, in Fukang, China. Pallasite is a stony-iron meteorite containing olivine crystals. The Fukang Meteorite is thought to have been formed at the birth of the solar system approximately 4.5 billion years ago, when the olivine fragments from its mantle mixed with the molten metal from its core upon impact on earth.The Fukang meteorite was discovered in the mountains of Fukang, China, in 2000. Nevertheless, it has been speculated that they originated from the boundary of a melted and differentiated asteroid and its surrounding olivine mantle. The exact origins of the Fukang Meteorite, as well as other Pallasites are not entirely clear. This type of meteorite, incidentally, is named after Simon Peter Pallas, a German doctor and naturalist who first described the Krasnojarsk Pallasite in Russia in 1772. Pallasites may be distinguished by a matrix of meteoric iron, in which silicates, mostly olivine (which is a type of yellow to yellowish-green crystal), are embedded. Stony-iron meteorites are meteorites that are made up of meteoric iron and silicates in an almost equal proportion. The Fukang Meteorite was found to be of a type of stony-iron meteorite known as Pallasite. It is estimated to be 4.5 billion years old. It is a pallasite a type of stonyiron meteorite with olivine crystals. Exhibit at the Center for Meteorite Studies, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA. The Fukang meteorite is a meteorite that was found in the mountains near Fukang, China in 2000. Therefore, the Fukang Meteorite has often been hailed as one of the greatest meteorite discoveries of the 21st century.įukang meteorite slice, pallasite. It has been estimated that less than 1 % of all meteorites are Pallasites. So what makes the Fukang Meteorite so special?įor one thing, it’s not a “common meteorite.” Pallasites are an extremely rare type of meteorite. This is due to the fact that most Pallasites do not survive their descent through the Earth’s atmosphere. In February 2021 Christie’s reports that it sold an “end wedge of the most beautiful extraterrestrial substance known.” Just that portion of the meteorite alone fetched a whopping 30,000 USD for the seller – well over the 3,500-4,500 USD estimate.
Part of the Fukang Meteorite was recently sold at auction.
#Fukang meteorite windows
According to one source, the stunning slices of such a meteorite, when illuminated from the back, are “reminiscent of stained glass windows crafted in the ancient solar system.” Was the Fukang Meteorite Up For Sale? The Fukang Meteorite belongs to a class of stony-iron meteorite known as Pallasite, which may be recognized by the fragments of olivine crystals embedded in an iron-nickel matrix. The Fukang Meteorite is the name given to a meteorite that was discovered in China.
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